Henry James

Covering End

Introduction

by Adrian Dover

Covering End is another of the ‘lost’ long tales by
Henry James (see my edition of
The Papers),
which is strange since it is pendant to
The turn of the screw,
the best known of all the tales, in the book publication
The two magics
(1898). The explanation for this may lie in the fact that it was
‘converted’ by James from his original one-act play
Summersoft,
which was written for
Ellen Terry
but not performed.
The tale bears distinct traces of its lineage, both in its structure and in
the rather melodramatic change of heart by one of the principle characters.
In fact, a later impresario persuaded James to turn the tale back into a
play as the three-act
The high bid,
which was produced briefly in 1907 – the two stage versions
are also available on this website, both separately and in a
parallel texts layout
for comparison.

If you spot any corrections which need to be made, or have any comments
about the editorial method or indeed about the tale itself, I would be
delighted to hear from you through my
contact page.
For corrections please give details of the work, the chapter (if
appropriate), the current text (so that I can find it!) and the
emendation required; thank you.